7/07/2011

Ulterior Motives (1993)

Erica (Keller) is a reporter trying to get to the truth about an
American selling secret aerospace/military aircraft schematics to
Japanese rivals. For help, she goes to private investigator Jack
Blaylock (Griffith), a man who speaks fluent Japanese, has an array of
SpyTech-type devices, and knows martial arts. What are the true
motivations of Malcolm Carter (Howard)? We won’t say what politician he
looks like, but let’s just say he “shot someone in the face”. When it
turns out the Yakuza is involved, all hell breaks loose in the form of
restrained fight sequences and plot twists and turns. Will Erica and
Jack find the truth?

The tagline on the British VHS goes as follows: “You’ve Seen Seagal
and Van Damme. Now...Meet the New Contender”. And, yes, in the heat of
the early-to-mid 90’s action boom, various “new contenders” were trotted
out: Jeff Speakman, Richard Norton, Gary Daniels, and now Thomas Ian Griffith.
Some from that list are more successful than others. But the problem
with Griffith, besides his odd hair, is that he has no personality
(outside of his winning smile, of course). With such stiff competition
back in the day, it must have proved impossible for Griffith to compete
with the action names of the time with no hooks of his own. Nothing sets
him apart. It seems Ulterior Motives
is an attempt to tone down the action elements and highlight the
drama/thriller/romance/espionage themes. Reasonable people can argue
whether this was successful, but usually muting the violence, action and
stunts is NOT a good idea for the fans.

The movie has an odd,
snoozy pace, and the characters could have used a bit more depth. The
length and pacing issues should have been remedied by some snappy
editing and better music. Or ANY music. Strangely, there is a lack of
music in most
scenes, and the music there is happens to be subtle and incidental.
Some more driving themes would have, and should have been there to
quicken the pace. And there’s another problem. There is no big, main,
evil baddie. Yes, there is an antagonist, but he’s a “secret”, so
there’s no real tension regarding the hero, Blaylock, wanting to kill him. As we saw in China O’Brien (1990), lack of a sinister bad guy is hugely detrimental to the action movie formula.

We
appreciate the attempt to be “different”, but it’s pointless to be
different for different’s sake, especially if the outcome doesn’t
deliver the goods. Ulterior Motives should have been aShowdown In Little Tokyo (1991), but instead it’s a Liberty and Bash (1989). We’re sorry if that analogy made no sense. Just see Showdown in Little Tokyo.

Ulterior
Motives (a very telling title, really) needed more action and less
jibber-jabber. For a much more satisfying T.I.G. (as we call him)
vehicle, check out Excessive Force (1993).

A lack of a great baddie is always an issue, definitely. I vaguely remembered this one, but I vaguely remembered being lured in by the "next Van Damme/Seagal, etc." on the VHS cover, and being disappointed, so what you say squares with that. Good review.